“This is a mine that was producing in the late 1930s and early 1940s. It was shut down during the war, like all non-essential metals mines, so the miners could be shifted over to the essential mines. It has never been in production since. In the early 1950s, Anaconda Minerals Co came in there, but the price of silver had collapsed so badly they decided not to go ahead with it. Then, in the 1980s, Sunshine Mining Co was mining up the road at a mine called the Sixteen-to-One, and they were looking seriously at putting this into production. But then they collapsed as well. So the net result is that the property has not seen any really significant activity until now.”

“Back in 2007, we acquired three claims that covered the actual outcrop, and we held it for a period of time until we could do a deal with another party that had surrounding ground. That happened last year. We closed the deal, and we did a financing to specifically carry out a drilling program on the property, because we knew fairly well where the system was. It was just a matter of learning a little bit from drilling experience. The first four holes we missed, but we learned from that. Hole 5 we hit, and we’ve been hitting ever since.

We have something that would be fairly inexpensive to put into production.—John Versfelt

“The first objective was to prove that the veining system actually was there and that there was something else to mine. Hole 5 did that, but it also indicated that the resource Sunshine had come up with was based on one higher-grade vein that had been mined in the past and some surrounding widths—so that they could have a mineable width added into it. What we have done now is proven through drilling that there were more veins within the veining system than they were aware of, and that they are wider and higher grade. So that was the first thing that we were doing—basically, showing that Sunshine Mines’ resource is actually on the low side. Since that time, we have now drilled across another high-grace vein that they did not have in their calculations at all, which we call the Hanging Wall vein. We are proving that there’s more tonnage there at higher values then their resource had shown.

“We’ve drilled through to Hole 15, and we’ve announced through to Hole 10. So we’ve got five more yet to announce. We will, from that, start indicating to the appropriate parties that the strike length and the dip of the unmined portion of this thing are fairly large. And we want to do one more round of drilling, which will start at the beginning of July. That will come up to the 400-foot level in the area, and we’ll do a fence of holes across that area. Of course the first hole will tell us if we’re on track with our thinking. If we are, we’ll do a series of holes all on that level from the northeast to the southwest. And we believe from that point we can start pulling together a 43-101 resource.”

Versfelt says that, at this stage, it is the intention of Millennium Mining to take Nivloc to production.

“There are a variety of points here that indicate that, for us, we have something that would be fairly inexpensive to put into production. The first is that we actually have a water permit in that area, which is incredibly important. The water permit is historical; it comes with that particular mine. The second is that there has been electricity through the property to the Sixteen-to-One Mine, and all the poles and lines and everything else are in place. It’s just a matter of refurbishing them, so we’re ready to go with electricity as well. Third, there’s a road—a county road, well-maintained. On top of that, about a mile and a half going to the southeast, there’s a mill that was in place for the Sixteen-to-One Mine. It was shut down in the late 1980s, and all the equipment was taken out, but our understanding is that there’s a new party that is coming in that wishes to do custom milling, and they are going to put all that equipment that was in the mill back in again. And the area is a mining area, so there’s labour there. All of these ingredients are coming together and it makes putting this into production a lot less costly than a lot of other situations.

“[In Nevada] you have to follow the rules. There are guidelines for everything. You need to deal with the various regulatory authorities. But there’s a process there, and they do want to have mines starting up again. They just want you to do it properly.

“I think we’re doing great. We can show with five holes that we’re hitting the veining system and that we’re doing everything right to build towards a resource. I also know from the other five holes that haven’t been announced yet, just by looking at it, that we are hitting the veining system each time. So we’ve gained a lot of knowledge, and I think we’re on track.”